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Hammersmith & Fulham Council reports it’s spending £3.2m on artificial intelligence and surveillance tech. The west London council’s leader Stephen Cowan said: “Every parent deserves to know their children are safe walking our streets. Every woman should feel secure coming home at night. Every resident has the right to live without the fear of being a victim of crime.
“This investment is about giving families peace of mind, helping victims see justice done, and ensuring criminals know there’s nowhere to hide in H&F. When residents see the results of justice being served is when the investment truly pays off.”
This comes besides the borough’s £5.4m spend on CCTV that has grown its camera network to more than 2,500 over the last four years. The council proposes live facial recognition cameras at ten high traffic areas, including Uxbridge Road in Shepherds Bush, Hammersmith Road and Fulham Road.
The three-year spend is funded by developer contributions and income from other boroughs who use the council’s CCTV services, such as the City of Westminster. H&F’s 24/7 control room can share real-time footage with Met Police officers and speak with the borough’s uniformed patrolling Law Enforcement Team (LET) by radio. Besides serious crime such as murder, more routinely the control room goes after fly-tippers.
Some 500 cameras will be fitted with artificial intelligence for automatically tracking suspects across the borough, to search thousands of hours of footage in seconds, detect weapons, and track vehicles. Some 50 cameras will get speakers so staff can step in in cases of anti-social behaviour seen on camera. Another 50 will have spotlights to cover anti-social behaviour. Due to increased reports of assaults and anti-social behaviour, £1m will be spent on park CCTV. The council is looking at trialling drones against fly-tipping.
Comment
Jasleen Chaggar, Legal and Policy Officer at the civil liberties campaign group Big Brother Watch, said: “The council are really throwing the kitchen sink at their residents with these plans, with very little regard to their fundamental rights or freedoms. Not only do they want to subject their residents to 24-hour real-time identity checks through live facial recognition, they also want to capture that footage of them going about their everyday lives in order to review their movements and behaviours after the fact.”
“There is no framework that’s been promised, there’s no legislation, and there’s an ongoing legal challenge. Will the council use this to monitor fly tippers or enforce parking fines? There are no rules in place… and the council are using this without safeguards.”
CCTV vans
Meanwhile in south London, Wandsworth Council has brought in three CCTV vans for deploying across the borough on crime prevention.
The extra funding for the CCTV vans has been made possible from the council’s £9m Neighbourhood Renewal Fund, which is investing in a wide range of neighbourhood improvements – all part of our Decade of Renewal being paid for by property developers.
Graeme Henderson, Wandsworth’s cabinet member for Health, said: “The new mobile CCTV cars will allow us to be more proactive, responsive and visible, ensuring our residents feel safe in their communities. This extra funding marks a significant step forward in our commitment to keeping Wandsworth safe.”
Photo by Mark Rowe: on-street H&F camera.
